


Remembering the Nightrider

by d__T



Series: And in the End, It's All the Same [5]
Category: Mad Max 1979, Mad Max: Road Warrior
Genre: Reminiscing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-11
Updated: 2015-10-11
Packaged: 2018-04-25 21:55:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 484
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4977976
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/d__T/pseuds/d__T
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Remember him when you look at the night sky."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Remembering the Nightrider

There’s a billion stars in the sky, and not a cloud or a fog to obscure them. There hasn’t been a cloud in days and wide open sky unobscured by clouds or light pollution isn’t unusual now but the vast yawning expanse still inspires awe.

Lying on her back in the bed of Indigo’s truck with her feet dangling over the edge of the downed tailgate, she stretches one hand to the sky. Long dark fingers grip uselessly against the stars, pulling the night air tight to her palm.

“I remember The Nightrider.” The name leaves her lips quietly yet reverently, a long time since it was last spoken aloud.

She pulls her clenched fist back from the glittering sky and lays her arm to rest beside her.

“When you look at the night sky, remember him.” The second part of the end of things hangs in the still air around them before Indigo asks.

“Who?”

He’s lying beside her, listening to the sound of the largely sleeping camp around them and feeling the starlight vibrate and cut under his skin. He waits, knowing the answer will come like he knows that when he wakes tomorrow the world will still be dry and awful.

She speaks in cadence, a slow litany. “A nameless man in the multitude of night riders, he ran guns and drugs under the cover of dark. Nameless, until the Bronze executed a raid on the gang he was running for. Nameless, until the Bronze executed his brothers. Nameless, until he rose like a phoenix from the carnage and made the run with nothing but the cargo in his saddlebags and the gun over his bare back.”

“In that pursuit, he was forced into a turn too fast, and ground the pegs on his bike to his bare feet. Ground the pegs on his bike to his feet, and held the turn as the pavement ate from the side of his foot, held the turn and took the name Nightrider.”

“Ever after, he rode shirtless and barefoot, a fuck you good luck talisman. He made every run successful. He joined Toecutter’s gang as their primary runner, and started choosing his cargo and we all rose up the highway food chain.”

“And then the Broze came for us again, hunted us down. Ran him down, blew him up; he died wearing a shirt. We took the hunt to the Bronze, took everything he had, his family and his mind. In turn, he killed our leaders and drowned our bikes.”

The stars accuse now, the sharp weak light like a million glass splinter knives.

“Most of us survived, went our own ways. Joined other gangs or simply walked into the waste one night. All of us left remember The Nightrider.”

The silence falls again, the legend over and any remaining memories to remain unspoken.

Tentatively, Indigo breaks the silence, “I will remember him.”


End file.
